Toward a Year-Round Stewardship Ministry Ann Michel of the Lewis Center staff says that forming people for faithful stewardship and extravagant generosity requires more than a single annual sermon. She advocates the development of a stewardship calendar to make sure that different aspects of stewardship receive ongoing attention throughout the year.
As a child, I would roll my eyes when my mother repeated herself again and AGAIN. But as an educator, Mom knew that repetition is the key to learning. As a stewardship professional, I note with some irony that many church leaders complain that their congregations just don’t seem to get it when it comes to giving and stewardship. And yet they never talk about stewardship outside of a commitment campaign conducted in a perfunctory way over a couple of weeks in the fall — a campaign culminating in “The Stewardship Sermon” — the one and only time each year when stewardship is preached from the pulpit.
Creating a culture of generosity within your congregation can’t be done in a single Sunday or even in a month of Sundays. It’s something that needs to be done on an ongoing basis throughout the year.
The Ongoing Challenge of Formation for Giving
Spiritual formation for stewardship and giving requires much more than this. It happens over a lifetime as people grow in faith and discipleship. These days, fewer and fewer people coming into our churches have learned the values of giving and tithing at home. We are bombarded daily with cultural messages contrary to what our Christian faith teaches about money and possessions. We have to constantly invite people into an alternative worldview that attests to the truth that God really does provide for us abundantly, that we are stewards — not owners — of the things that God has entrusted to us, and that giving is more important than acquiring.
Creating a culture of generosity within your congregation can’t be done in a single Sunday or even in a month of Sundays. It’s something that needs to be done on an ongoing basis throughout the year.
Creating a Stewardship Calendar
A stewardship calendar can be an invaluable instrument in planning a more holistic, year-round approach to stewardship. Some wonderful examples of stewardship calendars can be found online, including one by the Episcopal Diocese of West Texas or another by the stewardship division of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America. These planning templates suggest ways that stewardship themes can be tied to scriptural or liturgical themes across the church year and linked with various aspects of congregational life.
When I worked as the stewardship director at a large church in Washington, DC, I would create a yearly timeline to map out the various parts of our stewardship ministry, not just our pledge campaign. I would ask myself these questions: When was the best time of year to focus on planned giving or stewardship of one’s lifetime assets? When would various special appeals be made? How might stewardship education, including training around financial literacy, fit into the overall church calendar? When would we send thank-yous and giving statements? How would we help people think about stewardship of their time and talents?
My goal was to make sure that all aspects of stewardship received adequate attention, each at the time of year that made sense given the liturgical season and the church’s programmatic calendar. I also wanted to avoid overlapping appeals or competing messages. Once I knew we were going to be focusing on financial literacy in January, sacrificial giving during Lent, and stewardship of time and talents in the early fall, it was much easier to plan appropriate communication and connect our stewardship efforts with preaching, worship, and Christian education.
Start Small
The goal of establishing a holistic, year-round stewardship ministry may sound daunting. But the wonderful thing is that you can start small. Over the next year, experiment with adding something new. Maybe it’s a sermon series on a stewardship-related theme at a time of year totally apart from when you’re asking people to make pledges. I guarantee people will be more receptive to what you have to say if they don’t think it’s a thinly veiled attempt to get more of their money. Or maybe it’s conducting a “Thank-a-thon” to acknowledge the importance of people’s support of the church’s mission and reinforce the connection between generosity and gratitude. You don’t need to do everything on an annual basis. Classes on budgeting or preparing a will might be needed only every so often. But without planning, opportunities might easily fall through the cracks.
Dr. Michel originally wrote this article for the blog series “A New Perspective on Stewardship” hosted on NextChurch.
Related Resources
- Stewardship Resolutions for the New Year by Cesie Delve Scheuermann
- Setting Stewardship Goals for the New Year by Clayton L. Smith
- Theology of Stewardship And Biblical Generosity Video Tool Kit
Read more.
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4 Church Tech New Year's ResolutionsWill Rice, who blogs on issues related to technology and churches, says that the beginning of the year is a good time to take stock of your computer and IT needs and to make plans for the coming year.
Whether or not you are one to make New Year’s resolutions, the beginning of a year is a good time to take stock and think about the year to come. With some planning, you can be more effective in your ministry in the new year. This may be a good moment to make some plans for technology in the coming year. Here are a few things you might want to commit to.
When we fail to upgrade our computers, we need to calculate the extra soft costs we are incurring with staff and volunteers.
New Computers
All churches face budget limitations. Honestly, if your budget isn’t a little tight, you may ask yourself why you aren’t doing more. When the budget is tight, we often cut corners on things, and that can cost us more money in the long run.
Computers are a splendid example. When we fail to upgrade our computers, we need to calculate the extra soft costs we are incurring with staff and volunteers. If you are fortunate enough to have staff, how much time are they wasting because their computers take too long to boot or crash multiple times a day or just work tediously slow? If you consider the fact that you are paying them while they are waiting for their computer to recover, you might realize that a new computer might save you money.
If your volunteers work on computers, do the computers work well or are they a source of frustration? Good volunteers are hard to find, and their time is valuable. It would be tragic to lose volunteers over their frustration with the computers they are using.
How about the pastor? A fast, up-to-date machine will leave more time to spend on the many other things that make up a pastor’s day. Maybe it is time to make sure the pastor has a laptop or iPad so work isn’t always constrained to the office but can be done in multiple locations.
A New or Improved Website
I have spoken with people in many churches who know they need to update their websites or develop a website. Now, at the beginning of the year, might be the time to take action. Now is the time to make your website a priority for the coming year.
Your church’s website may be the first, and perhaps only, impression potential visitors will have of your church. Most first-time visitors will visit a church’s website before the church’s physical location. Make sure your site is mobile ready. Fewer people are going online on computers and are instead reaching for mobile phones and tablets.
Live Streaming
Most churches I know are dealing with attendance issues in one way or another. Either they are struggling with declining attendance or they are dealing with space issues from increased attendance. Live streaming can help with either. Declining attendance in many churches is a result of being an aging congregation as well as a more mobile congregation. The cost to live stream your worship services is at an all-time low. Live streaming is a gift for homebound members and members who travel, and it can be a tool for evangelism.
Online Giving
On any given Sunday, I carry about zero dollars in cash and not a single check. And I am not alone. There are people who want to give to the church, but the church needs to meet them where they are.
Online giving can seem like a big leap for churches who have been handling giving the same way for decades. The process of selecting a platform and provider can also seem a bit daunting, but begin by talking with churches comparable to yours that offer multiple means of giving. See which options fit how your members handle their financial lives.
What other tech pieces might make your church more effective in the new year? If these four are not your needs, then you are probably ahead of the technology curve and are ready to pilot new dimensions of technology for ministry from which all of us can learn.
Will Rice blogs on issues related to helping local congregations reach their communities at pastorwill.net. This article is adapted from that blog and used by permission.
Related Resources
- Your Website Probably Needs a Fresh Coat of Paint by Will Rice
- Embracing Electronic Giving by Adam J. Copeland
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The Right Question:
Leaders do not need answers. Leaders must have the right questions.
All leaders are busy. There never seems to be time for planning or looking ahead. The challenges of each day can easily overwhelm us. Daniel Burrus suggests that such leaders stop for a moment and reflect on this question:
- "In order to speed up, am I willing to slow down?"
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Learn to Optimize Your Annual Financial CampaignsChurch members who pledge give 30 percent more than those who do not, and congregations that seek annual financial commitments have significantly higher levels of overall giving. With the Optimizing Annual Financial Campaigns Video Tool Kit you will learn to reap the harvest of generosity through best practices to make your annual financial campaign more effective.
Learn more and watch introductory videos.
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50 Ways to Take Church to the CommunityChurches can no longer open their doors and expect that people will come in. Effective congregations go into the world to encounter those in need of the gospel. "50 Ways to Take Church to the Community" provides tips on reaching beyond the walls of your church with worship, community events, ministries, and service.
Churches can no longer open their doors and expect that people will come in. Effective congregations go into the world to encounter those in need of the gospel. These 50 Ways provide tips on reaching beyond the walls of your church with worship, community events, ministries, and service.
Embrace an expansive concept of community
- Learn to regard your community as an extension of your congregation. A church’s mission field goes beyond its membership to include all the people God calls it to serve. You are connected to individuals who never set foot in your building.
- Know that what’s happening within the church — preaching, worship, music, Bible study — is no longer enough to attract people in an age when church attendance is no longer a cultural expectation.
- Don’t sit in your church building waiting for people to come. Be prepared to meet people where they are.
Prepare spiritually
- Acknowledge the synergy between the Great Commandment in Matthew 22 (love your neighbor as yourself) and the Great Commission in Matthew 28 (go and make disciples). Evangelistic outreach expresses our love of others.
- Remember that Jesus primarily engaged people through everyday encounters, rather than in the Temple or synagogues. He fed people, met their everyday needs, and enjoyed the fellowship of others.
- Express love and compassion for your community in big and small ways. Avoid judgmentalism.
- Pray regularly for your neighbors and lift up community concerns.
- Attend to the faith formation of existing members. Willingness to share faith and reach out to others develops as one grows in faith and discipleship.
- Prepare spiritually for the transformation that creative, risk-taking outreach will bring.
Get to know the community surrounding your church
- Review demographic data from public, private, and denominational sources, but don’t assume that statistics alone will tell the whole story.
- Get out in your neighborhood. Walk the streets. Map the area, and record your observations. Note how the community is changing.
- Assess community needs and assets. What are the needs of your context? Who are your neighbors, and how can you serve them?
- Be attuned to where God is already at work in your community.
Listen and learn
- Know that ministries that truly bless a community often arise out of conversations where you listen for the hopes and dreams of people in your community.
- Interview residents of the community. Sit in a park, diner, or coffee house. Ask simply, “What are your challenges, hopes, longings and dreams?”
- Get to know the major public officials. They are people with tremendous influence. They need to know of your church’s commitment to the community.
- Involve many people from your church in this work. Hold one another accountable to the tasks of engaging and learning from others.
- Discern clusters of issues and concerns that arise from these conversations. Ask what issues, suffering, injustices, or brokenness might you address.
Build authentic relationships
- Strive for meaningful engagement with others, not superficial gestures.
- Make sure you are reaching out to people for the right reasons. If your motive is simply to get them to come to church, people will see right through to it.
- Maintain appropriate boundaries, and respect all with whom you engage.
- Collaborate with others who are also passionate about the community. Don’t reinvent the wheel if you can partner with someone else serving the community.
Turn your existing ministries outward
- Challenge each church group with an inside focus to find a way to become involved with the community outside the church. A choir might sing at a nursing home, or trustees could sponsor a neighborhood clean-up.
- Extend recruiting and advertising for church groups and events to audiences beyond your congregation. For example, recruit for choir members in a local paper or community list serve.
- Build relationships with those taking part in existing programs that serve the community, such as ELS classes, food pantry or clothes bank users, daycare families, etc.
Reach out through community events
- Plan “bridge events” designed explicitly to draw people from the community by providing for them something they need or enjoy — block parties, free concerts, seasonal events, parenting classes, sports camps, or school supply giveaways, etc. Source: Get Their Name by Bob Farr, Doug Anderson, and Kay Kotan (Abingdon Press, 2013)
- Hold these events off church property or outside the church walls in venues where people feel comfortable and naturally congregate.
- Get the word out through a well-planned publicity campaign.
- Encourage church members to invite their friends and neighbors. It is less threatening for them to invite someone to a community event than to worship.
- Avoid explicitly religious themes: no preaching, prayers, pressure, or financial appeals that might turn people off or reinforce negative stereotypes about church.
- Remember, the event itself is not the purpose. The purpose is to meet people where they are and build relationships. Mingle. Get to know people.
- Have a well-trained hospitality team. Make sure guests are enjoying themselves and know their attendance is appreciated.
- Gathering people’s names and information about them will permit follow up to those for whom it is appropriate.
- Invite those who attend community events to another event — sometimes called a “hand off event” — planned to draw them into a deeper relationship.
Extend your congregation’s spiritual presence beyond church walls
- Recognize that many “unchurched” people are spiritually inclined but apprehensive about attending church because they feel unwelcome, distrust institutions, or have been hurt in the past.
- Pay attention to the heightened receptiveness to spiritual engagement around religious holidays such as Easter and Christmas.
- Offer offsite worship services on special days, such as Christmas Eve, Palm Sunday, and Easter. Select familiar venues where people feel comfortable — parks, restaurants, parking lots, coffee houses.
- Offer imposition of ashes on Ash Wednesday in public places.
- Partner with other institutions (such as nursing homes, hospitals, or prisons) or commercial establishments (restaurants, bars, shopping centers, or sports facilities) to offer worship services to their constituents or clientele on special days.
- Plan creative outdoor events, such as live nativities or “blessing of the animals” services, to help make your church visibly present to the community in creative ways.
- Hold your Vacation Bible School in a local park or recreation center. Canvas nearby neighborhoods to invite families.
- Reach out to local media. Community outreach is often newsworthy, and reporters are often looking for religiously themed stories around the holidays.
Connect spiritual outreach to community service
- Acknowledge that many served through feeding and clothing ministries, justice ministries, weekday children’s services, and other ministries of community service have no other connections with our churches.
- Ask if these ministries inadvertently convey an “us and them” attitude or communicate that “you are not worthy of joining us.”
- Identify aspects of church life, such as characteristics of the building or how people dress, that may make some feel unwelcome. Are there alternatives that may reduce barriers for some to enter?
- Treat everyone as a person of dignity who deserves respect.
- Extend genuine hospitality to those you serve.
- Focus first on building relationships of understanding and trust.
- Consider adding a spiritual or discipleship element to community service activities but without any sense of expectation or requirement. For example, have a service or study following ESL classes for any interested.
- Seek to conduct each activity in a way that connects people to God and the church.
Download a PDF of this page to share with others.
Reach New Disciples with the “Taking Church to the Community” Video Tool Kit
Explore strategies your congregation can use to reach beyond its walls with worship, community events, ministries, and service. The Taking Church to the Community Tool Kit features engaging videos, presentations, and supplemental materials and is designed for both self study and for use with groups in your church. Learn more and watch introductory videos today.
Read now and download free.---
Quotable Leadership:
Congregational leadership in twenty-first-century America, even in the most conventional settings, is a complicated calculus of attentiveness, interpretation, engagement, and reflection. (Cynthia G. Linder)
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NEW: "More Church Leaders | Stronger Church Leaders" Video Tool KitLearn strategies to identify and support new leaders and build and maintain effective ministry teams. More Church Leaders | Stronger Church Leaders helps clergy and lay leaders, in churches both large and small, discover a more synergistic and fruitful way of being in ministry together. The tool kit includes engaging videos, handouts, and supplementary materials.
Learn more and watch video previews.
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Apply Now for Doctor of Ministry in Church Leadership at WesleyNew cohort begins May 2018 in Washington, DC
Wesley Theological Seminary and the Lewis Center together offer a Doctor of Ministry in Church Leadership Excellence. With this track, clergy will receive the enhanced knowledge, skills, and motivation to increase congregational and denominational service, vitality, and growth.
Learn more and apply today.
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Editor: Dr. Ann A. Michel
Copyright © 2004-2017 Lewis Center for Church Leadership of Wesley Theological Seminary
churchleadership.com/leadingideas
Connect with the Lewis Center:
Lewis Center for Church Leadership
Wesley Theological Seminary
4500 Massachusetts Avenue North West
Washington, D.C. 20016, United States
Copyright © 2004-2017 Lewis Center for Church Leadership of Wesley Theological Seminary
churchleadership.com/leadingideas
Connect with the Lewis Center:
Lewis Center for Church Leadership
Wesley Theological Seminary
4500 Massachusetts Avenue North West
Washington, D.C. 20016, United States
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